Restaurant owners look into the abyss
Greg Annesley was sitting at a table in his seafood restaurant in Belleville, Ont., watching TV as Ontario Premier Doug Ford ordered all restaurants and bars in the province to close.
The staff, already preparing for lunch service Tuesday, looked over at their boss. What did he want to do? Should they stop? Was it over?
Annesley, who has owned the Boathouse Restaurant for 20 years, told them to keep going, keep making soups, keep cutting fish. But as the morning continued, the news sank in. The Boathouse, like thousands of other restaurants and bars in Ontario, had to shut down, on St. Patrick’s Day no less. He told the staff to stop. The Ontario announcement was one of a series of similar orders and suggestions made across the country as provincial governments and municipal public health authorities from Vancouver to Nova Scotia moved to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The news set off harried discussions in restaurants from coast to coast as owners tried to figure out how long they could afford to pay their bills without revenue.
Annesley felt sick. He had 35 staff, all with families. Some of them had been with him for 15 years or more, with many living paycheque to paycheque. He also had thousands of dollars worth of perishable food in inventory. On top of that, rent for the 210-seat dining room, where Annesley said busy summers usually make up for slow winters, is due in two weeks.
“If this turns in to two or three months or more, we may not make it through that,” he said.
All he and his wife and co-owner, Nancy, could manage was to issue the final paycheques on Friday, then lay off the staff so they could seek EI.
“I wish I could do more,” Annesley said, his voice shaking.
Throughout the day Tuesday, restaurateurs with similar concerns called Restaurants Canada, a major industry organization with roughly 30,000 members.
“I think everyone is just kind of in shock right now. They’re not sure what to think,” said James Rilett, Restaurants Canada’s president for the central region. “You can say you were getting ready for it for the last few days but when it hits it’s pretty devastating.”
Some restaurant and bar owners wanted to know, “Should I lay off my staff or should I terminate them?”
Others asked, “What do I do when my rent comes due next month and I have no money to pay?” In the short term, Restaurants Canada advised members to lay off staff and provide them with records of employment as soon as possible so they can apply for EI. He also said the restaurant industry will need leniency from landlords and local utilities when bills come due.
In Ontario, restaurants were allowed to provide takeout and delivery, which would provide some reprieve but not nearly enough for the average Canadian full-service restaurant that gets 81 per cent of sales from dine-in customers, Rilett said.
“To make up 81 per cent of your business, it would have to be a huge spike in takeout and delivery,” he said. “Most won’t see it.”